North Carolina-based biotech BioCytics has partnered with UNC Charlotte and Carolina BioOncology Institute to investigate viral and non-coding genomic sequences as potential sources of new cancer immunotherapy targets. The two-year collaboration will combine long-read sequencing, immune profiling and computational genomics to identify tumor-specific features that could inform future cell therapy development.
The project pairs UNC Charlotte‘s bioinformatics capabilities with BioCytics’ access to oncology patients through Carolina BioOncology Institute. Richard Allen White III, associate professor of bioinformatics and genomics at UNC Charlotte, and Renaud Warin, chief scientific officer at BioCytics, are leading the effort, which combines long-read sequencing, immune repertoire profiling, and viral dark-genome discovery. The researchers plan to combine long-read sequencing with computational analysis of genomic variation, methylation and immune repertoire data to develop a clinical decision-support score estimating a patient’s likelihood of responding to therapy. Warin has said the viral dark genome — genomic material largely overlooked in oncology — may generate antigens in dysregulated cancer cells that could be exploited for immune cell therapies, directly relevant to BioCytics’ existing Autologous Adaptive Immune Cell Therapy (AAICT) platform, a point-of-care manufacturing process that uses a patient’s own nongenetically modified immune cells against solid tumors. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The collaboration extends a pattern of external partnerships for BioCytics as it works to advance its AAICT platform toward the clinic. In November 2025, the company completed an FDA INTERACT meeting ahead of an IND filing for its lead candidate, BCyIF-1, an investigational, non-genetically modified autologous Adaptive Cell Therapy (AACT) being developed for the treatment of solid tumors. The UNC Charlotte fits a broader strategy of using outside partnerships — academic, nonprofit, and regulatory — to build evidence and target pipelines around BCyIF-1 and AAICT without disclosing substantial capital commitments of its own.
The effort also reflects wider interest in mining understudied regions of the genome for oncology targets. Companies such as Enara Bio and HAYA Therapeutics have pursued related strategies, discovering tumor-specific antigens and long non-coding RNA targets from what they term the dark genome, though through different technical approaches and without direct ties to BioCytics or UNC Charlotte. The BioCytics-UNC Charlotte program is distinguished by its focus on viral sequences within tumor genomes and its explicit aim of pairing computational discovery with an existing autologous cell therapy platform, rather than pursuing a standalone diagnostic or antibody-based product.
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